Ready for Nepal!

[Ags]

I am headed off for Nepal in January, and my one-track mind has been feverishly thinking "Clear Skies! Dark Skies! High Altitude!"... although perhaps the big mountains will wreck the seeing.

Obviously a scientific expotition needs proper equipment, and I have been putting together an excursion setup that is cheap, light and rugged:

Telescope: ST80

Eyepiece: Hyperion 17mm

Mount: Celestron Heavy-Duty Alt-Azimuth Tripod (hereinafter HD-AZ)

The ST80 has enough aperture to show off the brighter Messiers under dark skies, which are all I have the skill to find, more or less. It is no optical gem (unlike my brilliant 4SE) and I have struggled to find an eyepiece that makes it sing.

I tried my Hyperion 24mm first and the result was awful. The combination yielded a massive 4 degrees FOV but the view was extremely fuzzy (even for faint stars) from around 50% out. It was the nastiest view I have ever had through a telescope.

Next I tried a Speer WALER 9.4mm giving 2 degrees FOV. In this EP, stars were equally sharp across the whole field (duhhh - it is only showing the sharp bit of the Hyp 24mm field!) but the view still lacked sharpness. I think the problem was that the Speer WALER was magnifying the stars too much, and consequently showing the spherical aberation of the ST80.

My last effort was with the Hyperion 17mm. This gives a good 3 degrees with all but the brightests stars sharp to nearly the edge. 3 degrees is good for general sweeping and fumbling arond for DSOs in the Himalayan chill while party members and curious villagers clamour for the next optical treat.

I will only take one eyepiece - I don't want to risk my precious collection. Even so, the hyperion is the most expensive part of the setup. But I can take a Hyperion fine tuning ring with me to get extra magnification - I am sure everyone will want to see Jupiter. So it is two eyepieces in one.

My mount is an unusual one - the HD-AZ is unknown to me, and I have not heard of it previously in two years of pathological astro window shopping. I've posted some pictures of it - aside from the mounting plate and Celestron logo I guess it is very similar to an AZ3. I found the ALT axis extremely tight and eventually had to loosen it with a spanner - I could not see a clutch anywhere. Unlike the AZ3 the Celestron is sold primarily as a photo mount with a built-in camera thread screw. You can disassemble it slightly if you want to bolt on tube rings.

The guy in the shop said they tried mounting a C8 on the HD-AZ but it was not up to the job. I wonder if they tried the experiment on the unit they sold me. That would explain the insanely tight ALT axis. I have plans of adapting the the scope with a counterwieght in the future so it relies on balance not friction, and then hopefully I can stick a larger scope on it.

[Nexus 6]

Great place to visit! can see why you would HAVE to take some kit with you, hope it all goes well when you arrive

[Ags]

Yes, I am nervous about travelling so far. We are only going there to meet up with family members travelling through the region.

[FrankieValley]

I trekked to Everest Base Camp last year. I couldn't make out a single constellation there were that many stars and the milky way was just immense, from horizon to horizon. Sadly, I had no equipment. Good for you

[Ags]

Hmmm.... I had another thought. I could drop the hyperion in favor of the 25mm e-lux plossl I've got somewhere. I need to test that out ASAP. Much cheaper and half a kilo lighter. But I would lose the fine tuning ring option.

I just weighed my setup - it comes in at 6kgs, including the hyperion.

[Ags]

I trekked to Everest Base Camp last year. I couldn't make out a single constellation...

Oh no! My heart sinks...

...there were that many stars and the milky way was just immense, from horizon to horizon. Sadly, I had no equipment. Good for you

:-))

I will also take my camera with me so hopefully I will get a few good widefield shots of the mountains and stars.

It is a pity Nepal is not in the Southern Hemisphere, that would really make the sky strange (even though I grew up in South Africa, I have forgotten it all). But it is far south enough to see some good stuff. Dumb me - I can plug the coordinates into Stellarium, I should have done that ages ago.

[newman]

If you're limited to a single EP, a Hyperion zoom might give you the versatility you need. Not sure how it'd perform in your scope though, it's pretty fast. Just throwing ideas out there

[Ags]

The hyperion zoom fails the cost test unfortunately. I tried the 25mm plossl and it gave good views, slightly wider and sharper than the 17mm hyperion (only because it uses less magnification). I might take it and a 6/9mm TMB clone.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

I really need to take a trip to the steppe, it's on my bucket list. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing the skies are up there.

[kiratgurung]

how was your trip???

Are you still in Nepal?

[Ags]

The trip was amazing. Kathmandu was not a suitable stargazing location because of the thick haze, but we went up to Nagarkot and the stars were brilliant. The ST80 showed some sights I have never seen before, and I'm sure I saw Canopus on the southern horizon, which i have not seen for 17 years.

The Beehive Cluster was transformed by dark skies. All in all it was well worth bringing my telescope, although I had to backpack it all over the place.

[Russe]

Around Annapurna I had the most amazing night sky I've seen in years. I go twice a year to KTM as my wife's from there. So we visit family. Took my mak127 once, but as KTM isn't worth it, I wouldn't do it again!

[Ags]

Russe, mail a heritage 130 there and catch the bus to Nagarkot?

[Russe]

Haha - not a bad idea actually. I'm just scared to leave it there as I don't know what would happen to it while I'm not there...